50,000 households benefit from an expansion of community housing eligibility

300,000 households to receive direct housing subsidy

50% reduction in use of homeless shelters

25% reduction, energy consumption and GHG emissions

20% of new units to meet accessibility standards

Observations: These targets show a willingness to tackle the challenges of housing affordability and supports from several angles: helping prevent homelessness, renewing existing housing helps, creating new spaces, and moving intentionally away from emergency accommodation (ie. shelters) to stronger and more effective solutions (ie. supportive housing). The intent seems to be in harmony with efforts currently underway by the City of Edmonton, which seems to be a healthy and well-considered approach.

Investment Highlights
The NHS describes a total budget of $37 billion dollars in federal funding to support housing and homelessness programs. The funding commitments described in the strategy include:

Appears to be a renewal of the existing Homeless Partnership Strategy (HPS) program that is in the midst of a major review that will launch in 2019

$300-million in additional federal funding to address housing needs in Canada’s North

$241-million for research, data and demonstrations

$200-million in Federal lands transferred to housing providers.

Observations: Some of these dollars will be used to leverage supplementary investments by provinces/territories; so much will depend on the success of these negotiations. It is wonderful that the federal government is coming to the table with both land and investment dollars in hand. Now we will look for productive and fruitful conversations at those tables.

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Innovative Efforts Helping People Heal

Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) is a frontline concern in our city; with close to one thousand new units desperately needed. Political backing and funding are lining up at all three levels of government to fill this critical gap in our response to prevent and end homelessness. These facilities are meaningful and effective solutions; provide safe and supportive community for people carrying some of the most difficult and complex burdens; barriers that continually jeopardize their health and their ability to retain work and housing. For these folks, a PSH facility is a space to find healing, hope and community.

But as efforts ramp up to build these facilities, questions abound: What might this look like? How will it fit into the local neighbourhood? What will be the impact be on the local community?

Today’s PSH story feature is Westwood Manor; located in the Westwood community, east of the old municipal airport. A few years ago, the Mustard Seed purchased and renovated a small ageing apartment building in the Westwood Community. It was fairly run down, and an eyesore in this mature neighbourhood. Today, this newly renovated facility is home and supportive community for twenty people with a range of complex needs, including drug and alcohol addictions, trauma and mental health barriers like schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and chronic depression.

Westwood Manor is rated as a fairly high acuity PSH. That means they have some higher needs folks living there. As with all PSH, supports are located on-site; including 24-hour staffing. Westwood Manor is also a harm-reduction facility, which means that a person’s housing is not dependent on maintaining their sobriety or abstinence. Tenants have access to sterilized needles and other supplies that will allow them to use safely.

Mustard Seed owns the building, but staffing ratios and operating dollars come from Homeward Trust, with people referred through the Coordinated Access System; that links all such efforts across Edmonton.

A Kitchen Space in one of the apartments

A priority in this facility is the creation of intentional community for their residents; not only within the facility but in the local neighbourhood as well. The lack of community and healthy relationship has long been recognized as a root cause of both addiction and mental health challenges. Landon Hildebrand, the facility manager notes that they have seen exciting change already, with significant health improvements. He says, “Joy, community, attachment…when we provide these things, the addictions have less appeal.””

He notes that mental health concerns are present in every community, but are more raw and hyper-realized in the most vulnerable. The ability to hide it is just not there.

Their efforts at providing community include building a relationship with local neighbours. Westwood staff approached the Westwood Community League to learn about getting more involved, and they were welcomed with open arms. The Community League provided them with a family membership to cover all their residents, and now they are able to participate as volunteers and as full members in community league gatherings.

Westwood Manor staff also supported the creation of a resident’s committee (much like a condo board) that had authority to consider and respond to concerns. Staff agreed to take all new policy or rule changes to this committee for their consideration. This new way of doing things changed how residents related to staff and how they thought about their home. It prompted a sense of ownership and responsibility in the facility; prompting greater care for the space, the grounds, and each other. They want their home to be a warm, safe, and healthy environment. Residents in this kind of leadership role have even helped resolve interpersonal conflicts. It’s been a win, win, win for everyone! Landon credits the success of this kind of approach as a direct counter to the myth that people in PSH can’t make good decisions. “The more authority and leadership we give to our folks, the better they do.”

Westwood’s community-building efforts are a little tricky on some fronts, particularly as they have very little in the way of gathering space to hang out together. When a suite is empty, the staff will often transform it into a place to hang out, and the office is one place people stop in to chat constantly. They could also use a secure space where they can have those private and secure conversations, coaching, training, and supports.

But things get much easier in the summer, when they can host outdoor BBQs and feasts, and invite the neighbours. They also plan to start a community garden this coming year that they hope will promote natural connection between residents and local neighbours.

Is their approach successful? Landon shares the story of one gentleman whose almost daily ritual was being out panhandling for long hours, stuck in alcohol and substances. He would get dropped off by EPS almost daily and carried back to his unit. Now he is there at 3:00 everyday to hang out with the staff during shift change; so he can chat with both those going out and those coming in. He’s also working to start a local snow shovelling business, and because he is a community league member is able to share some of his posters on the local bulletin board and in the community hall.

Certainly not everyone succeeds, and evictions happen occasionally. Concerns around safety and difficult behaviors are usually the reason someone has to be removed. Unfortunately, there are not many places for people to go if they are evicted. The shortage of PSH in Edmonton means that few facilities are available and equipped to manage and care for people with more difficult behaviors.

Westwood Manor’s story illustrates the value and effectiveness of Permanent Supportive Housing as a meaningful and effective solution. She provides a place of healing, home, safety and stability for some of our most vulnerable people. And the efforts by her residents and staff are a lesson in the powerful need we all have for a community where we participate and can take responsibility in shaping.

Based on an Interview with Landon Hildebrand, A Registered Psychologist, Serving as Director of Housing and Clinic development.

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For the first time on November 22, 2017 the Government of Canada formally began speaking about housing as a human right. While this has been recognized by the international community for some time, this marked an important recognition of the obligation we have as a country to ensure everyone has a safe and decent place to call home.

To unpack some of the implications and meaning of this recognition, I sat down with Jim Gurnett, a longtime housing advocate and promoter of housing as a human right. Here’s some of what he shared with me:

“Human rights are always fuzzy and hard to pin down. All human rights today are based on UN declarations. The problem is that they don’t compel any nations to do something. They simply state an obligation.”

“With housing it gets more complicated. The rights language gives us a way of thinking about housing, but not a black and white pathway to answers about what governments or communities can do. Even if Canada signs on to this obligation, what are the measurables of whether that right is being satisfied or not? The amount of money you have as a state can make it impossible to do much.”

“It also doesn’t directly feed into legal obligation. For example, Ontario courts have noted of some other rights, that even if something is a right, it’s not something we can enforce. A legal obligation can materialize if there becomes Canadian legislation to enforce housing as a right. Our Prime Minister hinted at that possibility in his November 22 announcement, but it was very vague. Moving forward, the Government will be considering what that might mean. Currently there is no legisltation in action that you could bring to the human rights commission to say ‘my right to housing has been violated.'”

“But here’s what I like about it. It makes us uncomfortable with the fact that some people don’t have this basic need met, and gets us exploring how we can work to resolve that. It gets us talking about the fact that we are not doing a good job. If a nation has homelessness, it is not doing enough. It gets us talking together about why some people don’t have the help they need.”

As I concluded this conversation with Jim, I came to the understanding that human rights language serves to remind us of our obligations as citizens of earth; obligations that the world has said together are critical and necessary. Obligation to protect freedom of speech and religion, peaceful assembly and association, to combat slavery, and to provide each other with basic needs like food, water and yes, adequate housing (Article 25 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

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The purpose of this exercise is to showcase the impossible choices that many Edmontonians making minimum wage are forced to make daily.

We know many low income households struggle to afford housing. What are some of the numbers?

In Alberta:
Tenant and owner households spending 30% or more of its income on shelter costs: 308,485
Percentage of owner households spending 30% or more of its income on shelter costs: 15.1%
Percentage of tenant households spending 30% or more of its income on shelter costs: 36.0%
Percentage of tenant households in subsidized housing: 10.4% (Statistics Canada, 2017)City of Edmonton:
Tenant and owner households spending 30% or more of income on shelter costs: 86,665
Percentage of owner households spending 30% or more of its income on shelter costs: 16.5%
Percentage of tenant households spending 30% or more of its income on shelter costs: 38.1%
Percentage of tenant households in subsidized housing: 10.6% (Statistics Canada, 2017)

What do housing affordability issues look like for those making minimum wage in Edmonton?

This section utilizes the calculation guide created by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives to complement the 2017 living wage calculation for Metro Vancouver. The calculation guide includes a spreadsheet that automatically calculates the living wage amount after local family expenses, deductions, tax credits, and government transfers have been applied. We replaced the living wage with the current minimum wage of $13.60/hour to recalculate yearly budgets of low wage workers and to showcase affordable housing challenges in the City of Edmonton and the choices that many Edmontonians are forced to make because of their low wages and high housing costs (Ivonova and Reano, 2017).

Single Person making $13.60/hour

For a single person living in a $1,000/month one bedroom apartment in the City of Edmonton making $24,752/year:

They will have no contingency or emergency fund

They will take $150/year off the food budget and may need to go to the food bank

They cannot afford cable television, but can have internet and one cellphone

They cannot afford health insurance through Alberta Blue Cross

They cannot afford to go to night school

They must take $500/year off their furniture and supplies budget

Even with these cuts, this individual saves only $4 monthly and $50 yearly

The single person is eligible for the Ride Transit Program and receives a $35/month bus pass

This individual must spend 50% of their income on rent

Single parent with one child making $13.60/hour

For a single parent family with one child living in a $1,106 two bedroom apartment in the City of Edmonton making $24,752/year:

A single parent will receive the maximum amounts for the Alberta Child Benefit, the Alberta Family Employment Tax Credit, and the Canada Child Benefit

Even with these extra benefits, a single parent making minimum wage cannot afford to go to night school

They must take $150/year off their contingency or emergency fund

They must cut their furniture and supplies budget by half

They must take $200/year off their clothing and footwear budget

They must take $100/year off their food budget and may need to go to the food bank

They cannot afford television but can have internet with one cellphone

This family can save $1 monthly and $7 yearly

A family of two is eligible for the Ride Transit Program and receives a $35/month bus pass

A single parent family must spend 33.9% of its income on rent

Two parent, two child family, making $13.60/hour

For a two parent family with two children living in a $1,377 three bedroom in the City of Edmonton making $49,504 a year:

This family receives a significant amount in child and family benefits

This family must take $300/year off its furniture and other supplies budget

They must take $200/year off their clothing and footwear budget

This family cannot afford to have one parent go to night school

They must cut their contingency or emergency fund by half

This family can save $2 monthly and $28 yearly

This family must spend 24.7% of its income on rent

Conclusion

The purpose of this exercise is to showcase the impossible choices that many Edmontonians making minimum wage are forced to make daily. A single person making minimum wage must choose between receiving an education or having enough food to eat. While a single parent receives the maximum amounts for a variety of federal and provincial child benefits, they are still unable to go to night school and are forced to take $100/year off their food budget, possibly having to use the food bank. A two-parent family with two children also cannot afford to send one parent to night school, and are forced to choose between buying clothing and furniture or paying the rent.By Heather Curtis, Research Coordinator,
Edmonton Social Planning Council

Sources:
Ivanova, I., & Reano, P. (2017). Working for a Living Wage 2017. Making Paid Work Meet Basic Family Needs in Metro Vancouver. Calculation Guide. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

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Working together with a diverse group of people tends to be tricky under the best of circumstances. After all, we each come with our different expectations, ways of being, backstories, ideas and passions. But imagine how tricky it can be working across diverse organizations! Even if we’re all working in the same general direction, a lack of good communication and coordination of efforts can sink the work; or at very least cause significant frustration and a waste of precious time and resources.

A Place to Call Home: Edmonton’s Updated Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness:
Update Feature: Part 3 of 3

Stronger collaboration between organizations responding to homelessness and extreme poverty has been a front-line emphasis for some time now, and an amazing amount of ground has been covered. The chart below illustrates the gradual shift in movement the last years have seen toward better communication and coordination.

Jarrod Bayne, the Chief Strategy officer from Homeward Trust Edmonton (HTE) makes the following observations about how this work has progressed:

Before the Ten-year Plan, waitlists to get into housing were the norm. With the implementation of the Plan and of Housing First, prioritization based on need (and standardized assessment tools) became the approach for HF programs.

Housing First agencies adopted a “No Wrong Door” approach, whereby a person presenting at any agency could expect to be screened and prioritized for service – they didn’t have to be referred elsewhere and repeat their story in other words.

No Wrong Door as an approach had a lot of strengths and consistency, but weaknesses as well. Agencies were prioritizing largely individually, and it was more challenging to optimize as a sector. A person could also have a service relationship with multiple agencies, complicating matters.

Homeward Trust established some central capacity for “Coordinated Access” to services funded under the Plan. Given that Homeward Trust administered the shared database and provided other capacity for the sector as a whole (such as landlord relations, rental assistance, and training), it made most sense to locate this function within HTE.

Several opportunities locally served as “proof of concept” for Coordinated Access as a shared practice. One example is our efforts through Housing First to address crisis levels of families in hotels.

Through our participation in the 20,000 Homes Campaign, the homeless-serving sector took the opportunity not only to increase our reach in identifying people experiencing homelessness, but also to combine and consolidate prioritization lists into a single shared list.

Building on international leading practice, HTE and our partners in Edmonton are now active participants in the “Built for Zero” initiative. This initiative emphasizes a real-time, shared “By Name List” as the cornerstone of community-wide efforts to end homelessness. This approach not only builds on the Coordinated Access capacity we have established locally, but also broadens the potential to directly involve multiple partners and providers in “working the list”. A shared community-wide list in real time gives us tremendous ability to react to trends, to learn more about how people move in and out of homelessness, and to show the impact of our collective efforts.

How does the new Plan update talk about the next stage of the journey? Here’s the basics:

Unpacking the Third Goal:Develop an Integrated Services Response

Engaging people with lived experience.
If you want to do a good job on anything, you want to be able to see what you’re doing from many angles. Frontline staff, along with participants in a program provide critical input to ensure providers are getting it right; with quality shelter, and in delivering housing and support services. The plan says “the need for specific engagement with key subpopulations, including youth and indigenous people will continue to be assessed and expanded to other groups where needed.”

Continued partnership on access and information-sharing.
Building on the work done already, specific goals are set to bridge the significant gaps that remain. The ‘no wrong door’ policy has helped to reduce the run-around and frustration people experience when trying to find help and support with housing. But there is still work to do on making sure people are able to be assessed and referred to the most appropriate kinds of help, and of course trying to ensure the right help will be available to meet the needs.

The System Planner Organization
With so many organizations and partners engaged together in the work across Edmonton, it can be difficult to gauge the health and needs of the larger picture. Homeward Trust Edmonton is currently positioned and resourced to be the system planner. Much of the work they do is targeted to streamlining the communication and information gathered from the many partner organizations in order to understand and research the larger trends. This helps inform where there are shortfalls and gaps in the work being done, and provides critical evidence to inform decisions as to where scarce resources are best spent.

The Accountability Framework
How will we ensure the work stays on track? Who will help resolve issues, sort out conflicts, and discuss the tough questions? An accountability framework will be developed by 2018 that will “identify resource and funding coordination processes, roles and accountabilities to support plan strategies.” This framework will (most likely) involve setting a table, gathering appropriate partners, and together formulating tools and structures so the group is able to understand and respond effectively to issues and challenges that emerge.

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They called it the ‘Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.’ At the beginning, leaders in the city of Edmonton knew this was an unachievable goal, but they stuck with the title. Why? Because they believed it was better to aim for success than to begin by measuring our failure.

Eight years in, much good work has been accomplished, and ‘no, we are not on target to succeed in ten years.‘ The work has always been long-term, but to do it well, it is good for us to continue to aim for success; to continually evaluate what we are doing and why; making our efforts better, stronger and more effective. It is also critical to stay focused on the larger picture, which must include prevention.

Last month we reflected on the first goal to End Chronic Homelessness; most of the solutions there focused on providing Accommodation and Supports. In October and November, we examine the second and third goals. The second goal targets the work of prevention.

Unpacking the Second Goal:Prevent Future Homelessness

The new update sets the following targets:

In 2019, people will be diverted from entering the homeless-serving system with an immediate link to community-based prevention supports within five days wherever possible and appropriate
By 2018, corrections, health, and child intervention will report on the number of people discharged into homelessness from public systems on a biennial basis at minimum. Based on figures reported, annual targets will be introduced to achieve zero discharge into homelessness by 2023.

Enhancing homelessness prevention and diversion.
A key to prevention is catching people before they either lose their housing, or slide into homelessness for any length of time. The plan update aims to fill that need by strengthening the ability of Coordinated Access to stabilize people’s housing situations, prevent evictions, and enhance crisis supports so people don’t end up at shelters or in Emergency rooms.

They aim to provide supported referrals that will make flexible housing funds available to agencies that are already providing support services to individuals and families experiencing homelessness. the report says, “a total of 750 individuals will receive supports from these two programs annually when fully implemented.”

Additional proposed measures to prevent homelessness include working with the Government of Alberta, City of Edmonton, and EndPoverty Edmonton to encourage increases to affordable housing stock and portable rent supplements.

Stronger supports and resources for Indigenous communities.
The report highlights: “In 2015, 54% of clients in Housing First programs were Indigenous. Indigenous-led and delivered services that provide access to Elders, and healing and wellness practitioners as part of supports, will continue to be a priority across the homeless-serving system. Morning Fire Protector has a cultural support worker to connect residents with cultural and ceremonial teachings, as well as engaging with Elders. Bent Arrow’s Indigenous Housing First team ensures that cultural supports are available to the participants they serve, and they coordinate and provide access to supports for other teams in the community.”

These are very needed resources in the indigenous communities, and certainly these resources are critical to the community at large as well, so the plan update calls for increased access to increased support resources in mental health, addiction, trauma and wellness services.

Public Education and Awareness
The Plan update recognizes the need for a social marketing campaign, as a way for people and communities to understand the impacts of poverty and unstable housing on people and families, so that they are better prepared to participate in solutions even on a local level.

The report states: “Edmontonians consider ending homelessness an important priority; many are engaged as volunteers, advocates, and donors. While this has been critical to our success, we know that ongoing public education and awareness about homelessness will help challenge myths and opposition to proposed Plan efforts, particularly in the location of new affordable and permanent supportive housing. We will continue to develop targeted and ongoing public marketing campaigns working with the media, business sector, faith community, volunteers, and Indigenous leaders to enhance public understanding about homelessness and challenge reactive approaches to this complex social issue.”

Staff and steering committee members from CRIHI have been in conversation with the City of Edmonton and other partners about the need for this for some time now, and are eager to assist in this important effort. CRIHI’s efforts at public education via our regional workshops are mentioned in the report.

Areas of possible engagement for faith communities:
1. Connect with local social workers or service providers, and offer to provide a fund to help them intervene before individuals or families are evicted. Have a conversation. Build trust and understanding, and find opportunities together.
2. Make room for supportive relationships to grow. Consider hosting mental health, or grief and trauma workshops, or Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous circles. Host parenting or marriage support groups.
3. November is Housing Month. Watch for news and educational efforts on housing by CRIHI and other partners. Read. Share. Talk about it. Invite CRIHI to visit your faith community to learn about the need and how we can respond. Website still being updated for 2017: housingmonth.ca
4. Creating more affordable housing will help prevent people and families from falling into crisis. If you or your faith community has access to land, consider working with non-profit developers to build or incorporate affordable housing.
5. If you are a landlord, consider connecting with housing providers. Talk with them about possible ways you could make room for to someone who needs help affording a home.

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From visit to visit, outreach workers want to build a relationship with people living rough. Through building a relationship you get to know the people and what they require.

A Place to Call Home: Edmonton’s Updated Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness lays out a variety of goals and action plans with the aim of ending and preventing homelessness in the City of Edmonton.

The first goal of the Plan is, End Chronic and Episodic Homelessness. The actions to achieve this goal are listed below:
1. Enhance the focus of crisis response services and facilities on permanent housing outcomes
2. Continue to evolve Housing First Programs for Maximum Impact
3. Develop permanent supportive housing and affordable housing across all neighbourhoods

The targets set to achieve the goal of ending chronic and episodic homelessness involve having all rough sleepers engaged through Coordinated Access and assertive outreach by 2018. The Plan also makes the following target: by 2020, no one staying in a shelter or sleeping rough will experience chronic homelessness (Homeward Trust, 2017). The purpose of this article is to determine how these two targets focusing on rough sleepers can become a reality by speaking with those who engage with this population on a daily basis.

2016 Homeless Count

According to the 2016 Homeless Count coordinated by Homeward Trust, out of the 1,753 individuals counted as experiencing homelessness, a total of 187 were classified as unsheltered. Out of these, 97 people were recorded as living in a makeshift shelter, 12 people in a vehicle, and 11 in another unsheltered location unfit for human habitation (Homeward Trust Edmonton, 2016).

Boyle Street Community Services

Outreach Services

Boyle Street Community Services’ outreach workers actively seek out vulnerable Edmontonians who may not have access to the programs. Outreach workers strive to find people in need, being those living in parks or on the street to help connect them to needed resources and supports. The organization provides basic needs such as food, housing, clothing, and medical support.

The outreach services include downtown outreach that links those living rough with programs. In addition, there is a city-wide outreach team that works with businesses, faith communities, and many others to help homeless individuals find affordable and adequate housing. In addition, the organization has a winter warming bus that runs from November to May. It is stocked with blankets and soup and actively seeks out the homeless in the City of Edmonton to provide crucial support during the winter months (Boyle Street Community Services, n.d.).

In 2016, Executive Director Julian Daly explained how his organization’s street outreach team worked with over 800 individuals sleeping outside in the river valley and city parks. Daly and colleagues have seen an increase of 43% of individuals camping in the river valley. Similarly, the number of people who use Boyle Street as their mailing address because they do not have a fixed address and are likely homeless has increased from 1,600 in 2015 to 2,220 in 2016 (Boyle Street Community Services, 2016).

How to reach rough sleepers in Edmonton.

An interview was conducted on August 23, 2017 with Doug Cooke, the Team Lead for Street Outreach at Boyle Street Community Services

Question 1: What is a rough sleeper?
“A rough sleeper is a homeless individual who sleeps outside, under tarps or tents, or those who make some form of shelter out of whatever materials they can find.”

Question 2: How does Boyle Street Community Services engage with rough sleepers?
“Street outreach workers make sure the people are in good shape, that they are not under medical distress and they are not experiencing any form of crisis at that moment. From visit to visit, outreach workers want to build a relationship with people living rough. Through building a relationship you get to know the people and what they require. After the first introduction, you may get a first name. When you start assisting someone, you can get them into medical appointments or getting them onto income support or introducing them into a housing program. The first goal is building a relationship and building trust.”

Question 3) What needs to be improved upon for the targets related to rough sleepers to be achieved?
“First having more outreach workers doing their job. It is also more about the accessibility of places to put people. There is a great push of getting people out of shelters and the river valley, but a lot of those people often have higher needs that will require some assistance with living, like someone checking in on them regularly to ensure they are keeping their apartments clean. There needs to be more funding for more apartments and programs that offer assistance and support beyond getting them a place to stay, but also ensuring they know how to take care of themselves, some people need this follow up support. Funding for affordable and supportive housing is lacking in addition to programs that help those who are living rough with mental health issues.”

Conclusion

For the targets outlined above to be achieved, there must be more directed funding into affordable and supportive housing models that will assist those previously sleeping rough to maintain their housing and to live independently. Ensuring that the most vulnerable Edmontonians do not experience chronic homelessness involves relationship building and forming connections based on respect, compassion, and patience. Funding for affordable and supportive housing needs to be improved upon to support more assisted living situations for those with more complex needs who require daily support.

By Heather Curtis, Research Coordinator
Edmonton Social Planning Council

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We are eight years in on the ten-year plan. “It’s time to look under the hood and see how we’re doing,” to use the words of Jay Freeman. Certainly, we have some things to be happy about. The Housing First program has been very successful, and has given over 6,000 people a home, and in many cases some solid supports as well.

But the work is certainly not done, and there are a few areas identified as needing a lot more work. That work is identified in the new update to the plan. For the next few months, we at the Interfaith Housing Initiative will be walking through some of the key learnings and goals set so that we can better understand where we as a whole city need to focus more of our energies as our work continues.

UNPACKING THE FIRST GOAL

Creating an effective network of helps, supports, services, and housing options is a tricky business. In the new update to the plan we see an intensive push to give people more permanency in their supports and housing situations. One area of concern that CRIHI, Welcome Home volunteers, and other partners expressed with the plan thus far was that people would often finish out a period of housing support in the Housing First program and then end up back on the street. This was really discouraging for both the people losing their housing and those walking with them. A major reason identified for this loss is a lack of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), and longer term supports.

As you can see in the chart below, the plan recommends strengthening Permanent Intensive Case Management (PICM) resources to provide better support to people long term, and to greatly increase our supply of PSH.

One of the biggest shortfalls in the plan so far has been that while the original plan called for 1,000 units of Permanent Supportive Housing, only 200 were actually built. PSH is fairly expensive to develop and run and requires major Capital investments, as you can see by the costs associated below. But it is still cheaper than the cost of providing emergency responses to people living on the street, and it provides real and effective help for people with numerous complex barriers!

Concluding Summary: a lack of both Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) and Permanent Intensive Case Management (PICM) resources is credited with causing shortfalls in the overall response system. A person may be very successful and making progress, but if their supports are not permanent and come to an end, they often fall back very quickly into the same place of crisis. So CRIHI applauds efforts to fill these gaps in our housing response.

Three keys to success in meeting these goals, and how faith communities might help:

ONE: Committed Funding and Consistent political backing. Stable operational dollars are needed to maintain supports, and Capital funding is needed to create new units of Permanent Supportive Housing. Currently, appeals are being made to all levels of government to pitch in. But people of faith can ensure our leaders know that finding meaningful helps and solutions to homelessness is important to us. When you run into your City Councillor, MLA or MP, broach the topic of poverty and affordable housing. Can Faith Communities and other community partners play a significant role in this fundraising? CRIHI’s Advocacy committee is talking about how we might help collaborate for that opportunity. Curious to explore that with us? Drop Mike an email at mike@interfaithhousing.ca

TWO: Finding available land in communities all over Edmonton. This is complicated work. There are many factors to consider when finding land, including access to local community resources and transportation, and if that land is expensive, creating housing that will be affordable is more difficult. Faith communities sometimes have parcels of land, and have offered that as a contribution to the development of affordable housing. Westmount Presbyterian Church provides an excellent example of this. Read full story here:https://interfaithhousinginitiative.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/the-westmount-presbyterian-story/

THREE: Gaining support and a welcome from the local community. This too is complex work. A key to success is a healthy consultation process. This is a need identified both by CRIHI and End Poverty Edmonton, and our two organizations are beginning work together on some great resources to aid both the community and developers in sitting down together. The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues also sees the need for this, and is willing to share their wisdom and experience, and hopefully some of their volunteers to aid in this task.

Plan Update Reflection by Mike Van Boom, CRIHI Housing Ambassador

Artwork for the plan update (top) was painted by Chipewyan artist Michael Fatt, and features the Cree word for home, ‘wikiwin.’

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According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) (2016), Alberta has among the lowest rates of off-reserve Indigenous child poverty in Canada at 26%. In comparison, Manitoba’s rate is 39% and Saskatchewan’s is 36%. The child poverty rate for those with First Nations status off-reserve in Alberta is approximately 39%, while for Metis children the rate is much lower at 20%. For Indigenous children on reserve in Alberta, the poverty rate skyrockets to 60%. According to the National Household Survey (2011), the poverty rate for Indigenous children in the City of Edmonton is 30%, while for non-Indigenous children the rate is approximately 12% (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2016).

Canada’s painful history with residential schools, in addition to the chronic underfunding of Indigenous services both on and off-reserve, has left many First Nations communities living in abject poverty (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2016). Indigenous peoples can also experience higher rates of diabetes, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, heart disease and obesity (Ubelacker, 2013).

The experience of being forcibly removed from their cultures, traditions and customs during the residential school period can partly explain the present health challenges experienced by many Indigenous peoples (Howard, 2017). In addition, as a result of the physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse experienced by many Indigenous peoples in residential schools, there is a general mistrust of mainstream institutions within Indigenous communities, which can exacerbate existing health struggles by discouraging access to health services (FCSS, 2015).

In addition, Indigenous peoples in Edmonton can experience significant challenges when accessing affordable, adequate and safe housing. In the 2016 Point-in-Time Homeless Count in Edmonton, 1,752 people experiencing homelessness were counted. While Indigenous peoples only account for 5% of the Edmonton population, 48% of the homeless population counted identify as Indigenous. Of those individuals, First Nations peoples are represented most significantly with 316 people counted (7 Cities on Housing and Homelessness, 2016)

Indigenous peoples also experience significant challenges obtaining employment in Alberta. In 2016, for example, Indigenous peoples had an unemployment rate of 13.8%, compared to 7.9% within the non-Indigenous population. Indigenous peoples also experience lower labour force participation rates than their non-Indigenous counterparts. In 2016, for example, Indigenous peoples had a participation rate of 70.3%, while non-Indigenous Albertans had a rate of 72.6% (Statistics Canada, 2017).

In conclusion, Indigenous peoples in the City of Edmonton and Alberta experience high rates of child poverty and negative health outcomes resulting from the chronic underfunding of services and the harmful legacy of residential schools (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2016). First Nations peoples in Edmonton are also overrepresented within the homeless population and food bank users and experience significant employment barriers (7 Cities on Housing and Homelessness, 2016).

By Heather Curtis, Research Coordinator
Edmonton Social Planning Council